"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Skinny & Happy

Turns out I can't stop losing weight. I'm down to 111 lbs, 9 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight. Clearly the oatmeal diet works. And apparently breastfeeding does make weight loss easier. We ate lots of rich food in Washington DC (stayed at a wonderful B&B), ate out (actually all really healthy food), but when I was hungry for a snack, I ate oatmeal. I ended up losing 2 lbs there. And I continue to wake up lighter every day.

Not a bad problem to have, but I am a creature of habit (as you may have noticed). Now that we're back home, I can't get myself to stop eating my oatmeal, acorn squash, sprouts, tomatoes and lefse. I have been adding TVP to the oatmeal, which helped with the protein situation. And supplement bananas, apples, tofu and cottage cheese as needed. But there just aren't many calories in those. And, of course, I should mention that breastfeeding burns 500-700 calories a day.

So how thin is too thin? I think I'm actually where I want to be, but don't want to stop the diet! The thing is, I pride myself on being a strong woman who can run ultras and swim miles at a time, but I like the fact that I'm losing weight without trying. And SR is giving me tons of positive feedback (no one minds being called "gorgeous skinny b####"). Although he does find all the oatmeal and gords a bit weird.

Dare I say staying at a healthy weight is as challenging as losing weight? At least I find this to be true while I'm breastfeeding. So now that my BMI (18.2) is underweight, I've probably got to stabilize, but I still feel healthy and strong. And the lighter you are, the faster you can run, to a point. From the information I found on the internet, Paula Radcliffe's BMI is 18.0, so I probably don't want to be below that.

Stay tuned, I'll hopefully end up staying at this weight, which seems about right for me. And if you're feeling adventurous, try the oatmeal diet and let me know how it works for you.

As someone who once had an eating disorder, and not as a competitive runner, etc, I have to give the word of caution pretty much whenever someone is talking about losing weight past for medical reasons.

If you want to maintain your weight but stay on your oatmeal diet, it sounds like you need to supplement your oatmeal with yet more oatmeal. Or do you mean you don't want to stop dieting?

I think it's harder to maintain weight than to lose it -- you are rewarded directly by dieting -- you see the low number on the scale. The reward of not gaining weight isn't as palpable and can be boring. Perhaps a new goal, such as how much weight you can lift, would satisfy the number-oriented/goal-oriented/fitness-oriented cravings?

I never connected this blog and you until you contacted me! There's a built-in failsafe for runners who diet; decreased performance. In my case, in college, I started to fall apart at 130 lbs (at 6 feet). I'm 30 lbs. heavier now and slower, but healthier overall.

Good point, Danni, that the GOAL needs to be feeling good and strong (and maybe a number goal like that is the way to go... interesting idea). And to Danni & Steve, I often find it hard to know weather it's actually the affect of the diet itself that makes me a bit slower (albeit temporarily), or if it's the fact that I weigh too little. People can be weak from eating too little and still weigh too much, obviously. So, I guess it takes a lot of experimentation to figure out what your ideal performance weight is (and obviously depends on your sport). That is part of the reason I'm a little hesitant to stop the diet now. Steve, your BMI was 17.6 - holy wow - that is low!

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

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My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.